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Idum Tan Lorsath 15305
Arawn's Assignment The party--without Toman or Fabian--woke in a completely alien forest. The steep mountain passes of Volanil were gone; around them was an endless, thick, dark forest, older than any that could be found on the supervolcanic continent they called home. They followed glowing firelight into the damp fog and came across a celebration of some kind, a clearing surrounded by thatch huts populated by dancers of all ages; mostly elves, but some humans, halflings, and what looked like satyrs, could all be found there as well. Eli noticed quickly that there was one other person who seemed not to understand the purpose of the festivity: an elf named Keajeon, a nervous-looking man, who upon questioning revealed that he was from Ereleisi and had never visited Volanil in his life. The party was quickly disrupted by a small group of foresty women, nymphs or dryads of some kind, who chased Keajeon down with a mindless determination. During the fight, some of the huts caught fire, and the fire began to spread to the rest of the small encampment, and the dancers all fled wordlessly. Upon further questioning, Keajeon revealed that he was an arsonist who set fire to the mayor's house as a form of activism; certainly one of the most chaotic things that could possibly be heard of happening in the stoic elven kingdom. Soon, the party was come upon by a woman who called herself Valrona; a woman who, with her son and her hunting dogs, had perished inside the flaming house. Keajeon insisted that he had double-checked that the house was empty before setting it on fire, and Valrona claimed he'd failed; then, after increasing tension, Keajeon remembered that he'd realized too late and had run into the flames to rescue her, and had died. The party stopped Valrona from killing Keajeon by convincing her (through a long back-and-forth of arguing and persuasion) that, since she is not (exactly) dead anymore, she has a chance to make things better rather than perpetuating the same violence. Also, Ana took her bow and Noose stole her rapier. Once she accepted the new terms (and her bow back) and left, the group was approached by another figure: Arawn, the Fey god of life and death, who asked that they, having learned about the story of Keajeon, decide his fate in the afterlife; in other words, judge his actions. He didn't seem to demand it in a timely manner, so the party conferred among themselves, and ultimately decided that both Keajeon and Valrona should be offered a fresh start through reincarnation. Arawn didn't say one thing or the other about accepting or rejecting the decision on Keajeon's part, but he did say that the conclusion was come to with a level head and a fair heart, and therefore, the party would be worthy of carrying a message for him into the Ebony Tower, a place where neither he nor his priests could enter. He asked that they tell Treysan, Wizard of Fifth Rank, that "life is not a currency," and that "you are playing at fire on the kindling of gods". They then awoke in the same field in which they'd made camp, surrounded by decaying dinosaurs, and Fabian and Toman both sleeping soundly. Noose then discovered that he still had Valrona's rapier. .